


hair

by edlington (stealingtime)



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Abusive Relationships, Canon Compliant, Character Study, Gen, Hair, Past Abuse, Self Confidence, Trans Male Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-20
Updated: 2017-02-20
Packaged: 2018-09-25 19:06:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,268
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9839966
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stealingtime/pseuds/edlington
Summary: Taako has always wanted to be beautiful; and as he grows, so does his hair.





	

When Taako was young, his aunt kept his hair shorn short- cut down to the scalp, brown curls barely managing to fall over his forehead before she would cut it again. She cut it in her kitchen with a pair of old scissors, and whenever he would complain, she would tell him it would keep lice away and stop his hair from getting into his food. 

“I won’t be pretty,” he would grumble as he watched his hair fall to the kitchen floor.

“Oh,  _ Taako _ ,” his aunt would sigh, “you will always be pretty.” 

/

After his Aunt died, he was on the road- he cooked for theater troupes and for thieves, whoever would take him in, and his hair started to grow. He used bandannas to pull it back from his face when he cooked, but he let it loose when he did magic; his Aunt had taught him that transmutation was in his  _ bones _ , and the road served as the best place to learn. 

One night, when he’s trying to leave a band of murderers behind, one of them catches him by his chin-length hair, snapping his head back. 

“Thought you could  _ run _ , you little traitor?” The rogue growls. 

Taako casts Magic Missile for the first time from his stolen wand, and cuts his hair with a knife the next morning. 

/ 

Sazed likes the way Taako’s hair looks long, so he grows it out. He ties it up with a swish of his wand at the start of every show, a routine, a warm up, and he lets Sazed pull his finger through the bleached-blonde curls that fall around his shoulders. Sazed likes it when he wears it out, so he does, abandoning his favored ponytails and braids because Sazed likes it when it’s down. 

In Glamour Springs, Taako agrees to let his hair down for the performance, and 40 people die. 

He runs. 

/ 

Six years later, he’s sitting in a bar, and he meets Merle and Magnus- his hair is in two braids that barely brush his shoulders. Magnus tells him that’s how his wife used to wear it, and Merle convinces him to help braid his beard for him. 

For the first time in six years, he has friends.

He agrees to take the job for Gundren, because if he’s honest, never working again sounds pretty damn sweet. He misses his life of luxury, the life he had with his show, but he knows he can never go back to that. 

They meet Killian, and they hear her words blurred out by static, and Taako kills Magic Brian with the same wand, the same spell as all those years ago. He finds the Umbra Staff, and touching it makes his hands feel electric, and-

As he looks out of Killian’s bubble and down at the rubble of Phandolin, he thinks to himself-  _ maybe I can make up for Glamour Springs.  _

/

When they’re sent to go investigate the Rockport limited, Taako notices his hair has grown. He pulls it away from his face in two tight french braids, practical but still pretty. The braids bounce on his tightly-bound chest on their rocky landing, and breathing gets a little harder at the thought of unbinding. 

Making fun of Jenkins with the boys is  _ easy _ , it’s normal, and they mock him right up until they’ve kicked his ass- Taako ruffle’s Angus’ hair and calls it a job well done, trying to ignore the way his hair has started to lighten from sun exposure.

/ 

He switches to a single braid that he lets fall over his shoulder in Goldcliff, the tips almost reaching his waist. He relishes the way it whips behind him during the battle-wagon race. 

When they lose Sloane and Hurley, he wants to tear it all out. He wants to  _ ruin  _ something, to tear something apart with the Umbra Staff, with Magnus’s axe, with his two bare hands. They deserved better, they deserved to live, he would give anything up for those two to be happy, but-

But Sloane and Hurley are dead, and the 40 people from Glamour Springs are dead, and Taako wears his guilt with a pretty braid and a smile. 

/ 

By Candlenights, his hair is past his ass, and he does it up in two long braids that he wraps into buns on top of his head. 

He makes macarons by hand, the entire time itching to pick up his wand, but he can’t do that- he can’t risk Magnus, or Merle, or god forbid  _ Angus _ . He counts himself lucky that his braid-buns fit under the helmet of his null-suit, because they took around an hour between him and Merle braiding. 

He hits on the Grim Reaper, and for the first time since Sazed, he wishes his hair was out, because flipping it over his shoulder would look  _ beyond  _ sick. 

He’s tired and sore by the time they make it back to the moon base, but for the first time in a very long time, Taako feels pretty. 

/

Taako’s hair is loose, almost at the back of his knees now, two long thin braids framing his face. His new skirt is just flirty enough, he has flowers tucked into the band of his hat, and he’s died a few more times, but hey, he’s been coming back, so not that big of a deal.

His heart climbs into his throat when June shows him Sazed poisoning those people, trying to poison him. He twirls his hair back into a ponytail, taking his hat off, and tells June that it wasn’t his fault after all- why would he go back and change that? 

When Magnus’s hand finds his while they watch life in Refuge flicker by from outside the bubble, and Taako doesn’t comment on it. 

/ 

He wears his hair in a ponytail for his date with Kravitz, and the reaper compliments him on it; 

“You look very nice with your hair tied up,” he says, and Taako smiles. 

“You look very nice  _ always _ , my man,” he shoots back, and he can’t help but feel warm at the blush that spreads across Kravitz’s face. 

/ 

When they enter wonderland, his hair is dark and shiny, soft to the touch and in two long braids, another smaller braid wrapped around the crown of his head. 

When the elves take away some of his beauty, he thinks he’s gonna be more upset about his face- and it doesn’t look quite right, anymore, like he’s Taako two inches to the left. What upsets him most is his hair- his long, beautiful hair, soft and smooth and  _ beautiful _ \- has gone dry and frizzy, straggling strands escaping from his braids, frizzy and messy and a disaster. 

But in the end, it doesn’t stop Magnus from pulling on one of his braids teasingly, it doesn’t change the way Merle jumps up and ruffles his hair. 

It doesn’t affect his decision to go after Magnus’s spirit, to pull and pull and  _ pull  _ until they’re floating back to their bodies; 

It doesn’t affect the sick feeling in his stomach when he sees Kravitz struggling against the black oil, doesn’t change that he wants to dive in after him and pull him out; 

When his soul floods back into his body and his eyes open, it’s not his hair that they’re looking at. It’s his bared teeth, his hands gripping the Umbra Staff so tight that his knuckles are bone-white, the heavy mix of fear and anger pouring out of him as he glares. 

It doesn’t matter that his hair doesn’t look good- Taako is going to kick their asses, beautiful or not. 

**Author's Note:**

> ive been thinkin about hair and haircuts a lot lately (just cut all mine off....) so yeah, have this very self indulgent and mostly canon compliant character study
> 
>  
> 
> [my info for writing commissions](http://halfcelestial.tumblr.com/commissions) is here!!


End file.
